Last weekend, I attended the Chimériades for the 2nd time, a gaming holiday set in a Provençal castle at a two-and-a-half-hour drive from my place. An exceptional convention with a bit of an intimate touch, and always full of awesome guests of honour, like Jeff Richard and Ken Rolston this year.

The Chimériades are organized every other year, and two years ago, I discovered the world of Glorantha there. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say that since then, I’ve tried to make my way into this world, managed to run some games, and even had a few people discover Glorantha as well.

So, for this 5th iteration of the Chimériades, I found it natural to give back what was given to me there, two years before, meaning I strongly felt like running a game of HeroQuest Glorantha. Besides, this convention was also going…

I have recently started to volunteer at joys wood and Mosley Bog a play area of old JRR Tolkien. It is just one day a week but it is very enjoyable. Having a level 3 in countryside conservation and a level 2 in horticulture i even know why we are doing what we are. Mainly scalloping the edges of the meadows and coppicing the hazel, silver Birch and willow. We also laid waste to the bramble and Gilder rose which has a habit of swamping out everything else if you allow it to, it will soon come back in any case LOL .In spring we will be planting out woodland flowers in the newly opened up areas.

Working from 10.30 till about 3.30 for any amount of time you want to is enjoyable and tiring. I like to adjure to the local pub for a warm up and a pint before the long bus journey home on the 11 Bus. Its great you should try it sometime. relaxing and at the end of the day you can see what you have done and that it will help the wildlife of the area.

Just a note really i have been attending courses at the study centre in the Botanical gardens that do city and gild courses in Horticulture and conservation as well as some other courses in related areas.

The level one Horticulture is at its very simplest a six week course but i was able to double it up so doing a 12 week course and gaining a higher qualification. It is very hands on practical experience and is ideal for the beginner gardener.

The level 2 Horticulture is more a mix of practical gardening and plant biology and takes a year to do.

Both these courses can be done while signing on as they are geared to the unemployed as much as the full time student the level 3 courses can be argued to be able to be done while unemployed or not depending on the view taken.

The level 3 course i took was in countryside conservation as i really did not feel i wanted to know more about the science of Horticulture liking as i do the wilder side of this green a pleasant land. the Horticulture is not wasted but i wanted to learn more about what made nature tick and i think i have begun to find out.

Those of us who believe that nature is important and that in order for nature to be better protected from the activities of people the best approach is to gather evidence, scientific evidence, analyse it, and present it to those in power, should heed this story.

Yesterday the Prime Minister attended the Liaison Committee, where he was questioned on a wide range of issues. The Liaison Committee comprises all the chairs of the Parliamentary Select Committees. So Neil Parish, new chair of the EFRA committee, and Devon farmer, was there, as was Labour’s Huw Irranca-Davies, new chair of the Environmental Audit Committee. You can watch the piece here from 17:22.

It was good to see Huw I-D give Cameron a hard time over the cuts in subsidies for renewable energy, though Cameron is an accomplished PR man and had the figures to hand, which he deployed. It’s a pity…